Top Tory came out as gay after threats to expose him

Friends rally round the newsagent’s son who rose to be deputy Speaker and faces a new tough battle

Nigel Evans at Gay Pride in London last year. The MP revealed in 2010 he was homosexual, saying he was tired of ‘living a lie’ (Les Wilson)

WHEN Nigel Evans came out as gay three years ago, it was in the same year he
had become deputy speaker of the House of Commons.

It was the right time, he decided, to be honest with the world because he was
“tired of living a lie” — but Evans’s declaration of his sexuality was not
much of a surprise to many of his parliamentary colleagues.

At the time Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, described the revelation as
“an open secret in parliament for years”.

Evans, 55, came out in an interview with a newspaper before the launch of a
parliamentary group to support gay MPs. His new openness had not been
entirely free of pressure. Evans said he had had threats of exposure from
enemies including a former Labour MP, and could “not afford it to be used as
leverage against me.”